Accused in Bakersfield Killings Were Headed to South America

A teen-ager arrested in the slayings of three family members allegedly committed the killings to get money and a truck so he and two friends could run off to South America, authorities said Monday.

Scott Kammeyer, 19, and his two friends fled with $163 and made it to Mexico after the Friday slayings, but ran out of money and returned across the border to National City, where they were arrested Sunday, Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Glenn Johnson said.

A pickup registered to Kammeyer’s father was confiscated in National City.

Joel Henry, 19, and Billy Wayne Smith, 18, were also arrested. The three were being taken to Bakersfield Monday night. Arraignment on murder charges was scheduled for today.

Authorities believe the three friends fled after committing the murders Friday afternoon in the Kammeyer family’s home.

John Jerome Kammeyer, 51, and his wife, Alana Jean, 47, were shot to death, and their son John Allen, 22, was beaten and stabbed to death. The bodies were discovered Saturday night.

It was the second triple homicide in this farming and oil community in three months.

In August, a health inspector, her husband and mother were shot to death in their home by Robert Courtney, who was on trial at the time on a charge of beating the inspector for issuing him citations. Courtney died in a shootout with officers during a chase the next day.

Kammeyer and his two friends decided to flee to South America after one of them learned he was going to be forced to move away from Bakersfield, Johnson said.

He said he didn’t know which of the teens was to move or for what reason.

The teens allegedly planned the murders a month ago to get money, transportation, guns and food, Johnson said.

John Kammeyer was a barber and a board member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said John Radanovich, former SPCA president. An animal shelter next door to his house was an SPCA adoption center, Radanovich said.

A sign in a window of the Kammeyer home asked firefighters to rescue the family’s six dogs, one cat and one bird if the house caught fire when no one was home.